reviews

Applewood Road (from the album Applewood Road)​Fate, AmericanaFest, and the musical magic in the air of East Nashville were the backdrop when Amy Speace, Emily Barker, and Amber Rubarth met, write their first song together, and immediately enter Welcome to 1979’s all analog recording environment to timeline the tune. “Applewood Road”, backed instrumentally with just a double bass, became the title track, and band name that the threesome would operate under. The trio reconvened six months later, once again returning to Welcome to 1979, and bringing in some of the fine Eastsider musicians to back the voices of Applewood Road with Telisha Williams, Aaron Lee Tasjian, Fats Kaplin, Jabe Beyer, and Josh Day playing in the band.The songs of Applewood Road sparkle with the purity in the trio’s voices, captured with no overdubs and gathered around a single microphone. Lead vocals are shared and at times tenderly accompanied by ooh-ahh harmony as in “Bring the Car Around”. Applewood Road adds age to an “Old Time Country Song” by backing the three voices with scratchy banjo, guitar strums, and fiddle while a bounce becomes the beat for “Sad Little Tune”, hushed notes barely whisper to match the storyline snowfall in “Home Fires”, and echoes of Tin Pan Alley join the touching emotion found in the vocal and harmonies of “My Love Grows”. Raucous Country Folk is reflected from “Lovin’ Eyes” and a dreamy melody drifts over the tale of a young boy and his radio in “To the Stars” as thick bass notes partner with percussion to float “Row Boat” and Applewood Road revisit R.E.M. with Folk take on “Losing My Religion”.Listen and buy the music of Applewood Road from AMAZON or iTunes